DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 76

Here is another .

TSTs were seen off and on here, but only as a passer- by. Those are nice Viceroy. Here is 'the purdy' at the Botanical garden out West last week. ^_^

Here is the bugfiles entry for your Banded Orange longwing butterfly.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/328/

Sheila, thank you for the I.D. I'm glad to learn that the Banded Orange bfs use passies as hostplants. How cool. It's said that it's only found in Tx?

Yes they are found in Mexico south to Brazil but do occassionally venture into S. TX.

Here is a Queen? At the Botanical garden.

Yes, nice shot Lily.

Thanks Sheila. Here is possibly a Sulphur? Orange barred Sulphur?

To everyone that is actually raising butterflies. How much time would you say is dedicated to doing just that?

No Lily.... that is another longwing, a Julia. http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/92/

Viceroy.....I would say about an hour to an hour 1/2 a day. I check them and feed them twice a day sometimes three times. Then there is a few minutes washing cages and searching the host plants and collecting eggs and cats.
But I am retired and find it a rewarding hobby.

I saw this TST today. My first dark variety! It stayed around for a couple hours nectaring on the cone flower mainly. It's wings were a bit tattered but it was beautiful to me.

This message was edited Jun 14, 2010 10:28 PM

It was basking on the Oak Leaf Hyd. when I caught this shot.

Thanks for the info shiela. I am trying to determine if I will have enough time to dedicate to them should I decide to do so.

You could only spend 30 minutes a day probably, but I have 30 or 40 to take care of usually. I feed parsley, fennel, and Rue to the BSTs and then Rue and Citrus to the GSTs. If you start with only 3-6 and feeding only one host plant then it would be so much simpler, probably 10 min two times a day. You can always stop if you find it time consuming.

Just try one or two Viceroy and then you will be hooked!

One of the Sulphurs...lol!

Yeah I'm tired of my cats disappearing I watched a pesky wasp hound my viceroy cat yesterday. I usually leave it to chance but I have about 5 spicebush cats first instar right now and I was thinking of collecting them.

Great....we will support you all the way. Just remember when you start, but prepared with lots of food.

I'm feelin the love!

Cat love!

I lost both of my black swallowtails because I went away on vacation so couldn't take them in. boo.

I agreed, raising caterpillars is a rewarding hobby. However, we need to be aware of the heartstring that they tuck at us when we discover predators that cause harm to the cats -- as in caterpillars. I still have alot more hostplants in the garden, but not one egg to be found. :((

Going out looking right now...I haven't sen any yet.

I don't have the best luck bringing in eggs. I wait until the day they hatch. My egg site isn't too great to keep up with them.

While watering my garden this morning. I freed this bf. from a spider's web. It was hungry then, landed on the flowers and took in the nectar for a good long while before it regained its strength and flew off.

...

Silver Spotted Skipper....

Hey Nan. That Silver Spotted skipper traveled a long way, from here to your place, in no time flat. lol.

Hey ladies...what are the plants it is nectaring on? Lily....the one you have looks like Frostweed blossums but the leaves are wrong and wrong time of year. Nanny....is that one a Milkweed maybe?

Nice SS Skippers. I don't usually see them until later.

Well I have a nice collection to share with you. Today I did my first real butterfly monitoring route for the Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network. My location is Nachusa Grasslands, which is a Nature Conservancy Property. It's a rough walk, but really amazing.

Here is the crowning glory, a Regal Fritillary. These host on the Bird's Foot Violets, which are pretty rare since they only survive in high quality prairies.

Also present was the Aphrodite Fritillary.

American Lady.

Pretty sure this is a Meadow Fritillary.

Here's a fun picture of some sulphurs having some tasty minerals.

Nice variety you've gotten there Mrs_Ed. How fun to see those Sulphers in a group. The different type of Frits. are beautiful too. Sheila, the flower on mine is yarrow. I'm not certain if those came back from previous year. Or from seeds. But that was in a big container.

I'm SO ready to see some butterflies in the garden. Thus I allowed this furry fella to munch on my Brugmansia's leaves. lol. This afternoon it vanished to somewhere. I hope I'll find 'him' flitting about the garden some time in the near future.

I have NO eggs or caterpillars either! :(

Lilly, that's probably a moth, but still cute.

Moth? Hmmm, I'll need to stay up in the night to look for "him" then. lol. Thanks Mrs_Ed.

Yep...more than likely it is a moth.
Yarrow, of course! I have it but don't look close enough evidentally!

Pair of Hackberry Emperor's. Funny thing...DH is not minding the rotting fruit laying around as much these days! lol

Found this red banded in the Bamboo this afternoon.

Mine unfortunately still calls them "my worms". LOL! But he is great to let me know when I have a butterfly hovering the host plants.